Feature: Jake’s Bagged S-10

April 12, 2015

Anyone who’s ever had a serious full blown project will know the difficulties of staying on track, especially when every last nut and bolt is in a place other than where the factory intended it to be. With Jake’s S-10 that’s pretty much exactly what happened. Throw twin boys into the mix, and anyone could understand why. It all started back when Jake was searching for a project to keep pace with his dad and brothers, who are huge car guys like himself. His dad has a 1932 Pontiac 5 window. His brother Jim swapped an RB25 into a 95 240sx, and his other brother Josh has a custom pre 60’s salt flat car and a 29 Model A Roadster with a flathead. I can’t think of another family that has this kinda car style and culture so deeply woven into it. They are all also a part of the Downeast Street-rod club, so he knew he had to do something cool, but he had to keep it different. So when he picked up a copy Mini-Truckin magazine, realizing how awesome these trucks are and the fact that no one in Maine builds anything like this, it was a simple choice what to do next. Being a Chevy guy it’s not hard to figure out why he went with an S-10, and he knew he wanted a first generation of the body style because of the square body, lack of airbags, and the lack of a third brake light oddly enough.

The style of the truck is right out of a decade ago. The headlights, hidden behind the billet front grille, the squared 18” wheels, the angled and frenched license plate, are all styles that have gone by the way side of the mini truck scene these days. Now everyone is stuffing 22”s under these trucks and its all insane but, like a lot of things on this particular truck, theres a story. The wheels were a gift from his grandmother, and the truck itself was built in a garage with his father and brothers, with the oversight of his twin boys. The body itself is more a style of 10 years ago as well. Along with guys fitting massive wheels to these things, a lot of guys are channeling or body dropping their trucks and laying rocker, but he didn’t. He left the truck stock on the frame rails, which I personally think was the right direction to go with the truck. It just has that tad more of a throw back flavor to it, like the old highboy hot rods, and it keeps a little more of the factory look about the truck.

With 2” drop spindles up front, tubular control arms, 4-link rear, and a 10” C notch in the frame out back, he’s got no problem laying the truck out on the frame. But now he doesn’t destroy the paint and body every time he does. The titanium drag blocks out back don’t do well to hide that fact when he airs out going down the road, as you can see. Being akin to air setups on mostly VW’s, Jake’s setup was a lot… lets say bigger, than I’m used too. With 1/2” lines from the tanks to the valves, which themselves are 1/2”, and there is 2 valves per bag. Everything is doubled, even the tanks and the compressors. With twin 7 gallon tanks and twin Viair compressors. This allows the truck to do different movements, and offers a him a lot more control over the bags in the cab.

Keeping the body ride height stock however, does not mean the rest of the steel on the truck went untouched, no no. The license plate is frenched, which means its sunken into the body of the truck. The door handles are shaved. The factory tail lights are shaved and now they reside in the roll pan where the factory bumper has since been shaved. The entire tailgate has been shaved. The whole thing, Inside and out, as well as the pockets along the top of the bed sides. I was lucky enough to see this thing before paint, and the body and metal work is nothing short of top level. All of the tank brackets, the frame notch, notch cover and all the metal work on the truck was done by Jake in his garage. The whole truck was then sprayed out by Chris Gousse over at Coleman’s Collision, in a 2012 Porsche Brown. When he first told me he wanted to paint the truck brown, I scoffed at it and told him it would look like a UPS truck. Needless to say I was wrong. Very wrong. The paint shows off the body lines and metal work fantastically, and only adds to the originality of the truck.

Lastly the title and name that Jake gave this truck is obvious and fitting. Decade. It took him a decade to finish it and anything that takes that amount of time is well worth it. Like his third boy. He was born just after the truck was completed. So now when he starts his next project, he will at the very least have some cheap labor, and I can’t wait to see the next finished project that comes out of his garage. For more pictures check out our gallery.